Who Killed Kit Marlowe?: A Contract to Murder in Elizabethan England [Paperback]

M. J Trow (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 18, 2002

Kit Marlowe was the bad boy of the Elizabethan drama, a schemer and player who inhabited a seamy underworld in which plots proliferated. When he died, stabbed through the eye at 29, it seemed he had met with the death that had been coming to him. But is this the whole story? Or did he know too much about those in power and so had to be expunged? This investigation of Marlowe's death - and the life which provoked it - unravels the evidence to suggest a new answer to a murder which has puzzled us over four centuries. Author of 'Tambourlaine', 'The Jew of Malta', and 'Doctor Faustus', Marlowe was the leading literary light of his generation. But while he excited admiration, he also made powerful enemies. For Marlowe had also become involved in a world of spies and counter-spies, and developed perilous interests in alchemy, witchcraft and the School of the Night. This work gives an insight into Marlowe's complex world.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

M.J. Trow is a crime novelist and historian. His novels include the Lestrade series for Macmillan/Constable and the Maxwell series for Hodder. His non-fiction titles includes Let Him Have it Chris - the Murder of Derek Bentley, Constable/Grafton 1989, which reached The Times One Hundred Bestseller List and achieved a pardon for Bentley. Taliesin Trow is currently studying history at Exeter University. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: The History Press (July 18, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0750929634
• ISBN-13: 978-0750929639
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,471,222 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Quite an interesting book, October 13, 2001

By 

Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Who Killed Kit Marlowe? (Hardcover)

On May 30, 1593, the acclaimed playwright Christopher "Kit" Marlowe (b.1564) died in the home of Eleanor Bull, having attacked another man over who would pay for the day's drinking. At least that's what the coroner ruled. The authors of this book believe that Marlowe earned an important someone's ire, and was murdered.

The book follows Marlowe's life, as he lived in the turbulent Elizabethan England. In an often-rambling narrative, the authors meander from topic to topic, giving the reader a fascinating look into the seamy underside of this "Golden Age." In the final chapters, the authors examine competing theories concerning Marlowe's murder, and then present their own explanation.

This is quite an interesting book. The authors reveal a great deal of information on Elizabethan England, the sort of information that you will not find in most history books. My one complaint is that the wandering narrative sometimes proves disturbing, making one wonder where the authors are going. But, that said, I did enjoy this book, and am glad that I read it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars conspiracy theories in Rennaissance England, October 6, 2007

By 

Galu "word look" (Butte Montana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Who Killed Kit Marlowe?: A Contract to Murder in Elizabethan England (Paperback)

Who Killed Kit Marlowe?
By M.J. Trow and Taliesin Trow
Review by R.Galu

I have always been intensely curious about the middle ages as played out on the island from which has sprung the largest share of great minds the world has ever known. Crime novelist T.J. Trow has briefly opened a peep hole for history voyeurs such as myself and invited us a look. If books can produce a sound or a smell, I am sure I heard the shrieking cries of filthy inmates through the grates of old Clink prison as their pitiful pleas for mercy floated through the crowded streets of London. Well-traveled roads of the urban Rennaissance that meandered, sometimes on course with the murky Thames, often found their way to the play houses and the pubs of the writers, the scholars, and the thinking men; covert clubs where undoubtedly the seeds of conspiracies were planted and plans hatched in whispered voices swearing oaths but death to those who violate.
One such scholar, to whom these favoured dark alleys often felt the weight of his boot, was a poet, a Cambridge man, known to his friends as Kit. To the rest of us, who speculate, dream, and debate, we will only know him as Christopher Marlowe; contemporary to Shakespeare. Author M.J.Trow, has put together in true crime style, all the little sketches of Marlowe's life of which there simply isn't enough. In an attempt to satisfy a real Rennaissance mystery full of intrigue, secret societies, a powerful queen, and murder, Trow performs admirably. Using a modern detective's eye, Trow looks 400 years behind him at a culture wrestling to break free of the unenlightened centuries stacked behind it. He provides the reader extra large snippets of Elizabethan society to aid him in this journey, and in a way that is often as meandering as the Thames, brings us to a great reckoning through his book: Who Killed Kit Marlowe?
Potentially a playwright as great as Shakespeare, Marlowe was cut down in the prime of his life as his career, notoriety, and finesse with a quill had just crossed over from adept to brilliant. He left us wanting more and he left us wanting to know why he did not live long enough to give us our desire. This author is completely aware of the reader's wonder. His research seems skillful enough as he provides extensive notes and a lengthy bibliography, all the while supplying us with text carefully woven through the pubs, playhouses, and alleyways of Elizabethan London and the surrounding countryside.
Understanding that he must dissect the theories that have gone before him, Trow's book is portioned into chapters starting with what is known about Marlowe, to what has been conjectured. His skepticism of old research is usually not without some original sources, historical prowess, and plain logic to lend the possibility that he might be on the right track. For example, Trow has expressed disappointment with other writers and what he believes to be their skimming-over of the true significance of the damning Baines note, a surviving document. Richard Baines made 19 charges against Marlowe in a note that was sent to the authorities just days before the playwright was murdered. Trow believes that Baines was telling the truth because of the content of the 15th charge, (minting money, a treasonable offense) which does not seem to have any relationship with the other atheistic charges. With the support of other documents referencing Marlowe's dismal attempt at producing a coin, Trow believes the other charges of "atheism," which in the Rennaissance was a broad term for corruption or nonconformist, could certainly be true.
Although the largest part of Trow's book is written clearly with a specific historical perspective to illuminate it, along with source documents to shore it up, occasionally he fails to give the reader an accounting of the source of a few of his conclusions. While pondering what might have happened to Marlowe's possessions immediately after his death, Trow mentions that the "unfinished poem, Hero and Leander," lay where Marlowe had left it, at Scadbury, the manor where Marlowe spent his last days. In an earlier chapter he states the poem was, "three quarters complete." The latter thought is pure speculation in that several other Marlowe critics have thought the poem ended as Marlowe wanted it to end.

The last chapter in Trow's book ends with a cryptic reference to the possible conspiracies surrounding the death of Princess Diana. It is understood that among academic circles there is little value in the belief in conspiracy theories and discussions about them are only met with derision. It is unclear by his references whether the author is telling his readers that political conspiracies were a commonality in long ago England and not today, or that they exist in as big a force as ever. Trow does seem to be telling us that his interpretation of events logically point to Marlowe's life and death as not being mere accidents. But no matter, the players in this possible conspiracy have long ago been left to molder in the bog of an ancient cemetery.
With these minor details aside, the glimpse into the intrigue and seamy underside of Elizabethan London with notes and references for further study, make this true crime novel worth the trouble of speculating on a murder four centuries past. Undoubtedly, Trow's aim is to help voyeurs of history understand the strange and scandalous world of an enigmatic Christopher Marlowe; just one of the many inscrutable minds that English has produced.